


Freedom

by glassdemons



Category: Elder Scrolls
Genre: M/M, Rescue, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-11
Updated: 2020-11-11
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:34:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27511603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glassdemons/pseuds/glassdemons
Summary: Vanus, his damnable belief in new beginnings, and his even worse sense of responsibility.
Relationships: Vanus Galerion/Mannimarco
Kudos: 10





	Freedom

Vanus hadn’t thought Mannimarco was aware of the fight ensuing around him, but after the vestige and company had made their way further ahead, he found himself hesitating, approaching the lich with what would be caution if not for the fact that it was a profoundly stupid idea, even with his armor stripped off of him.

His body would still and then fully convulse, seemingly with no correlation to the flares of sparks binding him to the stone table. The back of his head was oozing what passed for blood from having been smashed against his holding too many times, likely from his own doing.

He took a step closer and Mannimarco grunted sharply, sounding animalistic. This was no attempt to break free. There was no control of his movements. And that, surely, was the worst part.

Another step.

Mannimarco snapped his head around to look up at Vanus, his teeth bared in a snarl, a hoarse scream hissing out, before his eyes widened and he turned away. His body tried to curl in on itself, tried to move with him, but was slammed back into the rock, fighting him at every movement. With great effort, he faced Vanus again, who was now standing over him.

“Have you come to gl--” his mouth opened a bit too much, and he screamed. Gasping for air, trying to seem as threatening as possible, he locked his jaw and growled, “You’re here to be a part of this torment?”

His vocal chords had taken serious damage from the last time Vanus had heard him speak, seconds before he had been pulled here for eternity.

“I had not expected to see you still lived.”

“You call this living?” The pain was so evident in his cracking, raspy voice, that Vanus couldn’t stop the movement to cast a healing spell over his throat, though it was so minor in the face of… this. “Ash, bile, swirling vapors! The scream of a thousand nails being drawn!” He screamed again, writhing, opening new cuts and forming new bruises as he did so. He gagged, spit, saliva running down his cheek, and panted, wheezing with every inhale. When he spoke again, it was barely more than a whimper. “And the pain. The pain is endless. You _must_ be pleased to see me like this.”

“Why is he keeping you here?” Venus whispered, as gentle as possible.

“I am his…” he saw Mannimarco hesitate, disgust and shame overcoming his agony for a moment. “Plaything. A lesson to any others who would take my flawless plan. This is your fault! If not for you, I would be a god! I would be… I would be _free!”_ He fell into a coughing fit and spit again, this time producing blood and a not insignificant amount of alarm in Vanus. He pushed on, forcing out the words. “My only consolation is that _you will know_ this pain soon enough.”

“Not if I can help it, no, I won’t.”

“Arrogant, presumptuous, egotistical twaddle!” Mannimarco’s eyes suddenly seemed to focus on Vanus, as if seeing him in full for the first time since he had arrived. There was a fire in them blazing out of control. “My only joy for eternity will be hearing _you_ scream just the same as I! You did this! _You!”_

Vanus stilled his breath. Mannimarco was losing himself to necromancy long before his exile from the Psijic, and that was even longer before his deal with Molag Bal that anyone with sense would have realized would only end one way. Anyone who wasn’t in the thick of it, being played like nothing more than a common pawn. He chose to ignore the accusation along with his guilt.

Instead, he said, “Let me get you out of here.”

 _“Do not taunt me!”_ he screeched, and moved like he would lunge at him. The ethereal chains, for their part, suddenly acted very much like they would let him. Vanus leapt backwards, only for Mannimarco to be slammed onto his back with a loud crack. Mannimarco was stunned, the air knocked out of him, unable to catch his breath back again amid a new coughing fit.

For his part, Vanus took the opportunity of the silence to lay his hand against the nearest runestone. Suddenly, the magic encasing Mannimarco disappeared. He remained still, other than the occasional twitch and shudder, long enough for Vanus to wonder if the torment was the only thing keeping Mannimarco alive. Then, slowly, with a quiet groan, Mannimarco pushed himself upright, looking around the clearing he had been trapped in for weeks on end.

His gaze fell on Vanus, and his mouth fell open, ever so slightly, as his brow furrowed. His eyes flicked over him a few times before he stood, shakily, nearly stumbling over. Vanus took a step towards him. Mannimarco held out his hand to stop him.

“You are a naive fool,” he hissed. “Future generations will pay for your weakness.”

“You have no way out of Coldharbor, Mannimarco, please--”

 _“I make my own path!”_ he roared, looking for a moment every bit as regal as the royal bastard that had appeared on Artaeum’s beach before Vanus centuries ago, and then--

Mannimarco disappeared.

Vanus stood, frozen, eyes scanning the distance, waiting for--

Mannimarco reappeared, a few feet over, knelt on his knees and a hand on the ground to support himself as he retched.

“Oh, Auriel, gods, okay, alright,” Vanus said, hurrying over to kneel beside him and pull back Mannimarco’s blood, sweat, and spit soaked hair, rubbing his back with a healing spell directed towards his ribs and lung. 

Mannimarco shook, retching again and again, before finally falling onto his side near the pool of his sick.

“I hate you,” he growled, squeezing his eyes shut. “I _hate_ you.”

After having seen Mannimarco at his height, seeing all that the King of Worms was capable of, the horror, the power, Vanus had forgotten one thing about Mannimarco the boy, the wayward mage with a point to prove and a chip on his shoulder. 

“You’ve got no magicka, have you?” he whispered in disbelief, knocked by this realization into a sitting position. The great reserve of magic that Mannimarco had managed to carefully gather and preserve despite his feats had been completely drained in his efforts to regain his freedom, and, as an Atronarch, there was no way for him to get it back on his own.

Mannimarco, shivering, pulled himself onto Vanus’s legs. “I hate you,” he repeated. “I really, really…”

Vanus pressed another healing spell into his forehead, a small part of him hoping it was somehow all he needed to be sensible again. Mannimarco stopped twitching, slumping against him, as if unaware that they were still in grave danger, getting worse the longer they stayed separated from the party.

“If you ever, _ever,_ send me back here…” Mannimarco whispered, the calm, detached restraint Vanus remembered so fondly slowly returning to his speech.

“If you had behaved yourself we wouldn’t be in this mess at all!” Vanus snapped. “Get up. We’re leaving.”

Mannimarco looked at him, first with indignation, then with confusion.

 _Very well then,_ Vanus thought. He gently placed Mannimarco back on the ground, stood, and picked him up with a groan. He wasn’t any heavier than he remembered, but, gods ablaze, Vanus was not used to anything heavier than his staff.

“Set me down this instant!” So much for the cool-headed mage of old.

“No.”

“I am warning you--”

“Shut up.”

And yes, it was a naive, foolish thing to do. And yes, it was going to cause many, many problems.

But Vanus had always believed, ever since he first told their ritemaster, ever since his first letter to Sotha Sil, that Mannimarco simply needed help. 

If he was in a state he physically couldn’t escape a friendly hand, then, all the better.

The vestige was allegedly altruistic. He would have to see how far that would get them.

Auriel help them both.


End file.
